Studying
by Tri99erPu11er
Summary: A collection of one-shots about the Paladins. Chapter 1: Keith Chapter 2: Pidge had always had a fixation with fixing things. She liked making anything she came into contact with bigger, better, more useful if she could. Never had she imagined that would mean her family, or a team that controlled space lion robots aliens had made.
1. Never Needed (Until Now)

**A/N: So this is my first Voltron fic, and it will be a collection of character study one-shots. I'm just planning on doing one-shots about the paladins, but I'll do one for Allura and Coran too if that's requested. I apologize for any errors and wonky tenses in advance.**

 **But, anyways, reviews would be greatly appreciated because if these one-shots are a hit I might do a multi-chapter story!**

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Keith Kogane did not need _anything_. He also did not need _anyone_. For as long as he could remember it had always been him and him alone. Along the way people may have pretended to care for him, or forced themselves into his life, but one fact remained. No matter what, Keith had always been by himself.

He did not need parents, or foster parents, or guardians. He did not need an adult figure in his life to care for him. It would have been nice to have his real parents to take care of him while he was growing up, but that hadn't been possible. Similarly, it would have been wonderful to find good foster parents or guardians, but that also had never happened. Keith had grown up without an adult's help just fine, so he did not need one in his life. Especially not now.

When it came to relations outside of family members and adoptive family members, he did not need friends or enemies or significant others. Friends induced complicated feelings and emotions he did not have time nor the patience to deal with. In the end he'd just chase them off with his inability to use words and show any emotion besides anger. And enemies were even less desirable because they'd be good motivation to give into the uglier side of his personality. Keith gave into his anger and viciousness enough the way it was, and he certainly did not need a person to aim those less savory emotions at. Significant others would be an even worse nightmare to have than friends or enemies. He would never be open enough, or communicate well, or show them love and affection in the proper amounts. He would be too protective, maybe even a bit controlling. He would worry himself sick, and worry led to anger, and he would most likely take that anger out on his significant other. So while he basically ached to form connections with others, none of it was worth the drama that would surely ensue.

His whole adolescence was a cycle of thinking he needed, and then realizing he did _not_ need anything, or anyone, because he was the only one he could depend on. If he needed something, he had to do it himself. But then he met Shiro, and so, maybe… Just maybe, he did need something. Or, really, someone.

Shiro was kind, and patient, and willing to listen and help, and just an overall wonderful person. Somehow, surprisingly, Keith got along beautifully with the guy and they ended up being friends (which Keith had swore he did not need). Really good friends, so good they could have easily been mistaken for brothers. Life was looking up the more Keith started to think he needed Shiro. He got into the Galaxy Garrison, he easily became number one in his class, he got to fly and fight and be useful. It was all too good to be true!

And it was too good to be true, because Kerberos happened. Shiro had gotten the spot as the pilot for the mission, and promised to come back, but then the mission was labeled a failure due to pilot error.

The first month without Shiro was pure hell. Every corner Keith turned he expected to see his best friend around, every classroom he entered he expected to see Shiro sitting at a desk or talking to the teacher, every time he went to the training room or flight simulator and needed help he expected his brother to show up because that's just how it always had been after Keith joined the Galaxy Garrison. Shiro was never there though.

The second month was less agonizing, but he got into trouble more often because apparently he needed to listen more (Keith did not need anything, did not need to do anything!) and 'shape up'. He was the best pilot the Galaxy Garrison had now, and "he better not end up failing an important mission like his predecessor had, because he was better than that". However, none of that stopped him from doing a little investigating into what really happened on the Kerberos mission.

It was the start of the third month without Shiro when Keith was kindly forced to leave the Galaxy Garrison and banned from ever returning. By that point none of the information he had gathered on the Kerberos mission was useful, and he was beginning to realize something. He did not, had not, actually needed Shiro. Everybody eventually left him, and though he was certain Shiro hadn't disappeared in space on purpose, he always ended up by himself. Keith did not need anything, or anyone. All he needed was himself, because the only person he could depend on was himself.

He moved to the desert and never looked back, though the loneliness was hurting him now more than ever. But he did not need. Keith did not need anyone because they always left him. Keith did not need anything because nothing was dependable. Keith did not need because to need implied that one must have something or someone to live, and the only thing he must have to live was himself. So, he only needed himself.

Of course, this mindset was a problem when Shiro reappeared from space (with a purple, glowing cybernetic arm and without the Holts) and then he suddenly found himself in space in a blue lion spaceship with Shiro and three other people he hardly knew at all. And his mindset of 'he only needed himself' was certainly going to be an even bigger problem when he learned from an alien princess who had been frozen for ten thousand years that Shiro, him, and the three strangers were supposed to become a team. A team of flying lion spaceships that could all join together to form a giant robot. A team that was supposed to magically save the entirety of known space from a crazy emperor alien who had spent the last ten thousand years amassing and strengthening his empire.

It had all certainly been far easier said than done, and totally was not a piece of cake.

Of course Keith's mindset of not needing came back to bite him in the ass. First when he needed to win over the Red Lion's trust and then multiple times when he had to bond with the team and open up to them.

When he first realized there would be no getting out of the space war he had been unwillingly dragged into, and then told he needed to bond with the Red Lion, he instantly shut down. Just to prove to the others (mostly Lance), he could of course win the Red Lion's trust, he would. But that was all the effort he would really put into this team.

All of that was shot to hell when he saw how badass and amazing the Red Lion was. There was no way he was backing out of this Voltron stuff then. He… Keith needed the excitement, the opportunity to do something useful and positive, the chance to take his anger and make it a drive to never allow the Galra Empire to reach Earth and the other planets it hadn't yet.

Bonding with the team had not been easy at first. In fact, he would have opted out of it if it hadn't been needed. Bonding with the team had been needed to save the universe. Keith had needed to do something that was bigger than him and his problems, so he set those problems aside and… Did what had _needed_ to be done. He'd grown closer to the strangers he had flown out into space with.

Keith had come to enjoy Hunk and Pidge and Lance, even Coran and Allura. Keith had come to realize how much he had missed Shiro. Keith had come to realize being the Red Paladin and defending every being in space was actually a very gratifying and rewarding job.

Over the months (maybe it had been years?), the 'he only needed himself' mentality had faded away, withering up and making way for emotional and mental growth. Keith started to try and express his emotions more, to trust others and speak more openly to them, to stop being so antisocial and enjoy the company of his… Friends. That was what Hunk, Lance, Pidge, Allura, and Coran had become to him. All of them, specially Shiro, were his friends that he would do absolutely anything for. He would lay down his sword and die for them if that's what it took to save them.

Because, through all the bonding and fighting, they had grown on him immensely and he didn't know what he would do now without them in his life.

Keith needed Hunk's worry and stability (most definitely his cooking), needed Pidge's sarcastic and mischievous attitude and her reliability to solve any problem, needed Lance's insufferable jokes and infectious energy, needed Shiro's support and love, needed Allura's optimism and curiosity, needed Coran's vast knowledge and guidance. Every little aspect that made each of them uniquely them, whatever it may be, Keith needed it in his life now. They all brought out the best in him, and he needed his best.

Not only that, but they all gave him things he had not known he needed, but now knew he did. They gave him the love and support he had always needed, they made him feel useful like he had always needed. Whatever he had secretly always needed, they gave it to him or made him feel it. Keith had never felt so whole in his entire life before.

It had taken many years and some odd adventures in space, but Keith had finally found that he did need quite a few things. Quite a few someone's, actually.

Keith Kogane _needed_ Takashi Shirogane, Lance McClain, Hunk Garrett, Pidge Gunderson (Katie Holt), Allura, Coran, and Voltron (mostly the Red Lion).


	2. Fix It

**A/N: Ooookay, sorry about the long wait for this. Lots of things got thrown my way the last few weeks and I put updating this to the side, but I'm back now. Anyways, I'll let you read now. Sorry for the wacky tenses and possibly OOC Pidge.**

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Ever since Katie Holt was little, she had had an obsession with fixing things up and making them better. It had started with dolls, moved to some of her other toys, and shifted to technology as she grew older and became more interested in it.

The first time she fixed a doll up, it was her favorite one. The leg had broken off due to her overuse of the toy and she had immediately asked her mom for a new one, but little Katie was disappointed when she was told they didn't have enough money for such an unimportant thing at the time. So she had gathered up any materials she thought would be useful to fix her doll and retreated to her room, tinkering away at the doll until she had fixed it properly enough to be played with again.

It had only taken her a few hours, interrupted by her annoying older brother and concerned parents, and the doll's leg had been put back on and was good enough to work. In fact, the more she had played with the doll after fixing it up, the more she noticed the leg worked better than before. Granted, it wasn't the prettiest doll anymore, but it worked way better and was a lot more fun to play with. Naturally she ended up taking the rest of it apart and putting it back together so all of it worked better and was easier to play with. Afterwards it looked a little like Frankenstein's monster, but little Katie couldn't have cared less if she tried. Her doll had been better than ever and that's all that mattered to her, even if Matt teased her about how ugly it was. (He had just been jealous, that's all.)

Her fixation to fix things and make them better than they originally were only grew from there. Soon all of her toys ended up like her doll, ugly and a bit misshapen but working better than when they came out of the factory. She even started to combine some of the toys, leading to new fun times and one of a kind inventions all the other kids were surprisingly jealous of.

At the ripe age of seven, Katie became very interested in technology and all the wonders it could accomplish. It was amazing how machines could transmit messages across miles, how links could be established between any people from completely different parts of the globe, how ocean floors could be mapped by bouncing sound around, how space could be explored by launching a tiny rover to distant planets. The possibilities we're literally limitless if the right machines could be built and the proper technology was used!

She started improving video games her brother had handed down to her, fixed the coffeemaker anytime it was broken and made it more sophisticated each time, made a ridiculously tiny storage chip that could hold hundreds of data files and installed it in her favorite laptop she carried on her at all times. Surprisingly her family never got tired of her antics, even if a few of her projects didn't run so smoothly the first time, but they always supported her. Money hadn't been so hard to come by anymore, thanks to her dad's and brother's new job with the Galaxy Garrison, and they bought her just about anything she asked for. So long as it was a decently reasonable price.

Her life was perfect, and she was going to go far with how smart she was. Or, at least she would have, if her dad and brother hadn't been sent to Kerberos and disappeared.

Katie's poor mom had been so lost and afraid, trying to weasel answers out of the high commanders at Galaxy Garrison but getting nothing besides condolences and apologies and the same old "it was a pilot error, ma'am. We have no idea what happened to them except that it's highly unlikely they survived." Katie refused to believe that, and she had a feeling her mom did as well. But they're hands were tied and there wasn't much they could do besides accept what they were told and deal with it.

Until Katie got the brilliant idea to sneak into Galaxy Garrison and go looking for answers. She was caught by a guy named Iverson though, and told never to set foot on Galaxy Garrison property again. The smart thing to do then would have been to listen and return home, help her mom put their lives back together, but Katie had assumed an alias and disguise and signed up to be a cadet. Her one goal now was to find her some answers and hopefully her dad and brother, and fix her family so it was whole again.

However, she couldn't have predicted her friends, a guy who apparently used to go to Galaxy Garrison, and the pilot her dad and brother had been with would find a space robot lion built by aliens and end up having to save the entirety of space. That had thrown a real wrench in her plans.

Katie, now going by Pidge, had tried to stay focused on finding her family and put saving the universe to the side, but it hadn't worked. She grew close to the four knuckleheads, six if the aliens were counted, and realized helping put together a team wasn't a terrible idea. Especially if they were going to fix up space by saving it from being completely controlled by an evil race of aliens.

Besides, she had unlimited alien technology to tinker with and to learn from, and to use to upgrade her own technology. Maybe she could even invent something to help her find her dad and brother. She knew, using her primal gut instinct, that they were still alive and out there somewhere, waiting to be saved. Someday she would find them and be able to take them back home, finally fixing her broken family.

Until then, however, she would fix whatever technology she could and learn from whatever she could, alien or technology wise. She would help keep the team together and she would help save the universe. Because if she didn't now, she might have to anyways later. And, as much as she enjoyed fixing things, there would be tons of more things to fix if the Galra gained anymore power.


End file.
